VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM
What is this thing called Vampire Lesbians of Sodom?
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What Vampire is is Attitude. Heavy Attitude. The sort of campy, bitchy, flaming, raving, out-there drag-queen Attitude most famously associated with the late Charles Ludlam and his Ridiculous Theatre. Created by New York cross-dress diva Charles Busch, Vampire and Sleeping Beauty are Attitude as form and function, content and technique. They’d kill for the right pair of pumps.
As directed by Douglas Hartzell, the new Edge production of Vampire and Sleeping Beauty goes light on the Attitude. With predictable results.
Everybody else tries hard and competently. Patrick Towne offers a couple of especially witty caricatures; Richard Walker has a funny turn, playing against his distinctly African American type as a Jewish guy from the New York garment trade; and Bruce Terris acts appropriately confused as a Sodomite with a conscience. Even so, the only cast member with a touch of real Attitude magic is the rubber-faced, dancerly Peter Mohawk, who offers up the most serenely, most transcendently offensive queen cartoon I’ve ever seen. It’s pure Attitude and it’s absolutely perfect.
